Month: August 2007
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Ohio Gives Up on Secret Ballots
Eat this: Ohio law permits anyone to walk into a county election office and obtain two crucial documents: a list of voters in the order they voted, and a time-stamped list of the actual votes. “We simply take the two pieces of paper together, merge them, and then we have which voter voted and in…
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White House Manual on Preparing for Presidential Visits Released
It’s not dissent if nobody sees it: Preventing Demonstrators: As mentioned, all Presidential events must be ticketed or accessed by a name list. This is the best method for preventing demonstrators. People who are obviously going to try to disrupt the event can be denied entrance at least to the VIP area between the stage…
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Worms Live in Methane Ice on Bottom of Gulf of Mexico
Keep your fart jokes to yourself: The discovery of dense colonies of these one-to-two-inch-long, flat, pinkish worms burrowing into a mushroom-shaped mound of methane seeping up from the sea floor raises speculation that the worms may be a new species with a pervasive and as yet unknown influence on these energy-rich gas deposits. The worms…
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Scientists Find Marburg Virus Hot Zone
The vector is always the hardest to find: The natural reservoir for Marburg virus has been the subject of much speculation and scientific investigation. In demonstrating evidence of infection in this common species of fruit bat, the paper provides new insight into a deadly disease that has long baffled epidemiologists, ecologists and virologists, and in…
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Most Disturbing Family Guy Moments
Definitely NOT safe for work. [youtube]CK2fl1OvLto[/youtube]
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1 in 4 US Adults Didn't Read a Book Last Year
From CNN: The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven. When the Gallup poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started — a similar but not…
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Average US Incomes Still Below 2000 Peak, Rich Get Richer
But the Dow…? But isn’t it a good thing? You mean wages have been stagnant? That’s unpossible! Total income listed on tax returns grew every year after World War II, with a single one-year exception, until 2001, making the five-year period of lower average incomes and four years of lower total incomes a new experience…
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Bush OKs Spy Satellites for Local Law Enforcement
What’s that chill in the air? A new program ordered up by Michael McConnell, director of National Intelligence, will give police and others access to some information from the spy satellites that pass above the U.S. along their paths over the globe. The images and data will be employed initially for border security and emergency…
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Happy Birthday Honey
Some years ago today, a special guy was born and it is really stupendous that we get to have birthday lunch with his dad (and brother from Milwaukee) who has been visiting the States in the past several weeks.
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ABC Changes Online Polls to Downplay Kucinich Support
Dropping 3000 votes in the process.